POTD: Rack the slide with your trigger finger: The Rare Norinco 77B

Christopher sent us a photo of a gun he spent 25 years trying to acquire. The Norinco 77B is notable for having a slide that can be racked using the trigger finger! I have to confess, I don’t ever recall coming across or reading about the 77B. Christopher writes …

I’ve chased this rare bird since seeing the Chinasports ad in a SOF magazine in 1990. After traveling hundreds of miles, nearly 25 years spent in the halls of PA, NY, MD, VA,Fl, SC, NV, OH, WV gunshows and visiting gunshops all over the country, I’ve never encountered one. Recently, I found this Norinco 77b on GB (thank you internet!) from a Chicago pawnshop awhile back and thought I’d share it with my favorite blog. (according to wikipedia) Based on the German Einhand system. If you’re empty and get winged in a firefight, you can rack the slide with one hand. Striker fired, blowback in 9mm. Just an odd duck that still intrigues me after all these years.

Thanks Christopher, it turns out there are guns even this old gun blogger has not come across before!

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Dracon1201

That’s actually really cool! I wonder why it isn’t included on more firearms. Seems like it would be a good idea on a carry gun.

Ian McCollum

It’s really not very practical to actually use.

sianmink

Not for regular use, but as a backup system in case you have one hand incapacitated, it might actually be worth looking at. It doesn’t seem to add a great deal of weight or complexity to the system.

Matthew Hoff

What could go wrong, racking the slide with your trigger finger? Hmmm….

Dracon1201

Well maybe you could acquire one and show us?

Ian McCollum

I have one (see the blog post in my comment below). Haven’t done a video yet, but it’s on the list.

El Duderino

Sounds like something the Hi-Point folks might want to look into. After all, they are typically used with one hand on the steering wheel, so this would be pretty useful.

M

Reminds me of the JoLoAr pistol

Jsim

I wonder what the pull weight on that is, it has to really heavy

SirOliverHumperdink

Not terrible, kind of like a tokarev.

Menger40

That seems just a tad unsafe

floppyscience

There’s a ton of these in Canada. I had no idea there were any in the US.

It may very well be from Canada, you’ve got to figure there’s some leakage from up there to down here… I also thought it had never been imported.

kgallerno

If they leaked to down south of the border, it is a illegal gun then i would imagine. But as posted earlier, they are not so rare in Canada.

Ian McCollum

They were imported into the US for a short time before Chinese importation was cut off.

floppyscience

Anything Chinese that isn’t a “sporting” shotgun and anything at all marked “Norinco” is banned from import. If this was a Canadian import brought into the US, it was done so illegally.

Hellbilly

You can still get Norinco shotguns. I bought a Norinco 98 (Remmy 870 copy) new about six years ago.

floppyscience

Sure you can still get them, if they aren’t marked “Norinco”. The Hawk 982 series is a Norinco Hawk but eligible for import because it doesn’t say “Norinco” on it. All Norinco firearms were banned from import in 2003. Your 98 must have been new old stock.

SirOliverHumperdink

Nope, Marstar is the importer in Canada. This is a CSI gun.

Bal256

Intredasting…

Martin Grønsdal

this is great for the tactical situation when a panda bear eats your left hand. You can still rack the gun with the remaining hand.

SirOliverHumperdink

G Gordon Liddy used to say the reason he carried a revolver vs an auto was if he got winged, he can still reload it.

How do you load a revolver with one hand, without sitting it down on a table in front of you?

SirOliverHumperdink

Good question to ask G Gordon Liddy lol.

jamezb

You swing out the cylinder, hang the gun through the cylinder opening on any functional digit of the wounded hand, and reload with the good hand…sounds good in theory…in practice???

Legman688

The right choice in defensive sidearm for somebody who’s single wing is the highest-capacity auto they can find. Preferably one without a full length guide rod. That way, any right angled surface or edge – a wall corner, the edge of a table, hell, in extremis the side of your shoe sole – becomes a cocking mechanism.

As for the big magazine – reloads are going to suck no matter what. Minimize them. Also, high-capacity double stack magazines are usually quite broad on the bottom, so they’re easier to stand up on a flat surface and slam the gun down over them. There’s also always the “stick the gun back in the holster then insert the mag” method.

Bill

We learned one-handed loading of the pistol as part of our transition from the revolver, which we learned one-hand loading for in the academy. Some guys would actually use the buckle on their Sam Browne belt to push the front of the slide with. I didn’t have the balls to point a pistol sliding into battery at my….wait, I did have the balls, and didn’t want to take any chances……..

Lance

AW all the fun we had before HW Bush’s gun ban in 1989.

Raoul O’Shaugnessy

Pretty sure the import ban on Chinese guns was later when Slick Willy penned it into law.

BryanS

Either way a damned politician violated their constitutional oath.

indy

Actually, I kind of remember speaking to Norinco sales rep in Europe in early 90’s.
Main idea was to carry it chamber empty and then load the round on draw. It does sound strange but bear in mind that in Europe and China in this case it is still practice to carry autoloaders with empty chamber….

I believe the Israelis have changed. Well sort off. Those civilians who are permitted to carry are not permitted to do so with a loaded chamber. However IDF, police and other government agents do carry with loaded chambers. The policy of carrying empty come from the early days of the Israeli militia units (which would become the IDF and police) who had a vast array of weapons from various sources. Since it was impossible to come up with a single “safe” method of carrying the empty chamber policy was adopted.

As for Europe I am not aware of any country which practices (or even preaches) carrying with an empty chamber. Though it may be different for civilians concealed carry but that is pretty much unheard of in Europe.

Dukeblue91

I can’t find it at the moment but there is another handgun out that has a mechanism like this one.

Legman688

You’re thinking of the Lignose Einhand.

Dukeblue91

Yes that was the one, thanks Legman688

Ren

Can’t remember the source, but from what I recall these were intended for horse-mounted cavalry – so they could keep one hand on the reins. It was a decent idea and the manufacturer did make some sales at a fairly decent profit – the original design without the racking lever was average at best and saw no interest. They weren’t that good, though, the handle supposedly moved around and wasn’t easy to rack even with the lever.

mechamaster

We can add “finger-stroke” as “powerstroke” derivative now. lol.

ensiteu

carry two guns

BryanS

Since two is one and one is none, realistically, you should carry a main, a backup, and a backup-backup.

morokko

It is moderately popular among the private security employees in Poland. The security companies bought them due to low price – nowadays it costs about 900pln – roughly 250$. One of my buddies used to be shift leader in private security unit that guards one of polish military bases. They had these pistols as their duty weapon, and were quite pleased with them – its heavy for limited magazine capacity and somewhat obsolete but quite decently made, the reliability with 9×18 fmj was supposed to be good, but, honestly, the they did not shoot that much, outside of period qualifications . The cocking device requires some practice since it tends to be hard to pull. Interesting pistol for collectors, but now it is overshadowed by NP22 Sig-Sauer clone, that offers much more in terms of use for the price.

morokko

It was 9×19 FMJs of course.

Dukeblue91

Nice but I never seen this one but thanks to you I now have.
Thank you Raoul

Anomanom

Nice, i was wondering if anyone else would mention that.

Capt. Obvious

I just lift my foot and press my shoe against the slide and rack it whenever I’m in a gunfight and my other arm is out of commission. Oh wait, that’s actually never happened.

jamescastaneda@live.com

I have an old Jo Lo Ar in the safe that my dad acquired from somewhere. It’s a really slick design, and takes minimal effort to rack the slide. But, it does flop around, which makes it kind of awkward.

MRHapla

Speculating that the design leaves it open to a part failure? that would be a lot or repetitive stress on the finger guard ?